Monday, 14 July 2014

ZEITGEIST

Today I am officially no longer in full time employment and it feels incredibly exciting to say this! I have chosen to leave my professional role and this feels a huge leap of faith into the unknown with loss of financial security. But it feels so right!!

It wasn't a decision made lightly and it took a long time for me to reach this point. But once I got here handing in my resignation was easy. One friend called it zeitgeist, a term I had not come across before. But when I looked it up, I saw what she meant. ‘Zeitgeist’ is made from two German words, zeit, which means time, and geist, which means spirit. The push and pull between doing what I love, and love what I am doing, was becoming ever stronger. Because, yes! There were parts of my professional role that did love and I am sad to leave behind. There are things that I will miss.... BUT giving this up frees me to focus on other areas of my life that have been long time put-on-hold or neglected. The tension between the two was ever growing............

And now there is a sense of liberation:There will be no more regularly getting up at 5am No more long commutes - sometimes sitting for hours in trafficNo more commitment and having to fit my life around work No more push and pull So what will I do?!Well, it has been my long-term dream to spend more time being creative and sharing what I do. Back in March I took my books to an ArtBookArt fair and I was encouraged to arrange space in a local community art-café project. But there was no point. I didn't have time to make the stock to fill a shelf, and like other opportunities this had to wait until my situation changed. And so now I have arranged space in the shop and I DO have my work displayed and on sale! It is a pop-up project and not sustainable, but at least it gets my work shown and other opportunities might follow. But even more exciting!

I WILL BE RUNNING BOOK MAKING CLASSESAT A LOCAL CRAFT SHOP!!!!

Three classes are booked through August and I have also been asked to run Scrapbook classes, so dates for these are planned too. I have been encouraged to take examples of my work to another shop and I have other ideas planned. I didn't imagine that one door would close and that another would open so fast, but I am so excited! Finally I have time to follow my dream. Financial security is important, we all have bills to pay. But life is short. I cannot be true to myself and carry on as I was. The time feels right to take a risk and to follow my heart rather than my head.....

Wishing you every success! I know from what you have shared just how stresssful and unsupported your work had become - hoping you have a perfectly lovely summer and autumn stretching out gently into the new.